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Southgate to shuffle his pack
England manager Gareth Southgate will make wholesale changes to his team for the Three Lions’ friendly against Ivory Coast at Wembley tonight.
Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Switzerland saw established players mixed in alongside a handful of debutants and Southgate is expected to follow a similar template tonight.
Certain to miss out is defender John Stones, who has returned to Manchester City after suffering an injury in the warm-up ahead of Saturday’s contest.
On tonight’s team selection, Southgate said: “We’ll make changes. We think that’s the right thing to do.
“We want to keep all of the squad involved. I think that has been a strength for us. Players who come in perform well at the level and the team march on.
“They need to feel that we’ve got the confidence in them to go into any game and we’re also at a stage of the season where their load is heavy and we’ve got to make sure we try and navigate that in the best way possible.”
Southampton’s Kyle Walker-Peters and Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi made their England debuts at the weekend, with Eagles left-back Tyrick Mitchell also coming off the bench for his international bow.
Mitchell is one who could earn a place in the starting XI tonight, as well as the likes of Fraser Forster, James Ward-Prowse, Jude Bellingham, Tyrone Mings and Ollie Watkins — all of whom played little or no part against the Swiss.
Ronaldo rallies Portugal
Cristiano Ronaldo has described Portugal’s World Cup play-off final against North Macedonia as a “matter of life and death.”
Portugal will be looking to avoid missing their first World Cup since 1998 but come up against a North Macedonia side who stunned European Champions Italy 1-0 in their semi-final last week.
Ronaldo, 37, can earn a place at a joint-record fifth World Cup by winning in Porto tonight — and he wants supporters to play their part in helping him and his team get there.
The captain said: “I urge the fans — I want hell breaking loose at Dragao [Stadium].
“I went to bed last night thinking that I want the stadium to shut down the music for our national anthem and let the fans sing it acapella to show our passion, our strength and union around the objective of reaching the World Cup.
“For us, this game is a matter of life and death. There is a responsibility to win this game. For us, also a game of our lives. They have surprised [opponents] in many games but I believe they will not surprise us.”
